Monday 27 May 2013

How to progress through "Progressive Overload"

The surest way to make progress and be certain that you your muscles get bigger/stronger lies in the methodology of (Progressive Overload).

What is it?
Progressively overloading is the ‘gradual increase’ of stress placed upon the muscle.

Why?
In order to continually make gains in muscle size, strength: Give the muscle a motive to grow. If you squat 100kg for 10reps then the 6 weeks following you are lifting the same weight for the same number of reps/sets, why would the muscle need to grow or get stronger?

How to apply it?
Increase the weight — Lift a slightly heavier weight. A good way to apply this is to use very small increments (e.g. 1.25kg per side).

1/
Shorter rest time between sets — Set your phone timer so you know exactly how long you are resting and when its time for the next set.

2/
Add volume or/and increase exercises — Increase the amount of sets and exercises preformed for that specific muscle group.

3/
Intensity — Increase the effort you put into every set. This principal has worked best for me for creating progressive overload. Do whatever you have to do to get yourself mentally ready to go 100% all out on each given set.

4/
Increase Frequency — This is a last resort. If all other fundamentals to reaching progressive overload of the muscle fail, increase how often you work that body part. Be sure to cut the volume on both days (initially), so the muscle doesn’t become over trained.

Evidently it would be impossible to make progress on every workout, this would result in every gym rat lifting unadulterated amounts of weight if they applied any of these essentials. But in saying that, you should be trying week on week to beat the prior workouts. For each individual it will happen at a diverse rate but making sure it happens is critical whilst aiming for prime results.


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